Save Your Blanching Water

April 22, 2009(updated on October 3, 2018)

pitcher-of-blanching-water

I finally found the time to make a batch of pickled asparagus tonight. It was my first attempt at pickling and it was satisfyingly easy. I’ll write up the details tomorrow. However, there’s one little tip I wanted to share with you all.

You see, the particular recipe I followed called for the asparagus to be blanched for just ten seconds prior to being packed into the jars. After I retrieved all the asparagus bits from the pot of water, I set aside the now bright green blanching water and poured it into a pitcher to cool down. Tomorrow, when it’s room temperature, I’ll water my houseplants with it, giving them a hit of the nutrients that transferred from the asparagus into the water.

As we all move forward into the heart of the pickling and canning season, this is a great way to reuse that vitamin-rich water (you can also do this when you steam/blanch veggies for dinner).

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7 thoughts on "Save Your Blanching Water"

  • I love that idea! Perhaps this’ll be enough of a “good deed” for the plants that I’ll stop having nightmares that I’ve sentenced my garden to a slow and painful death…

  • If you have a yard and a garden, you can do this on a larger scale than I’m able to do it my apartment. Keep a bucket in the kitchen and use it to gather all your cooking/rinsing water. The veggies benefit and you conserve water.

  • if it soup making season, use the blanching water instead of stock or water when making soup – as long as the flavors are compatible of course….

  • That’s another good use for blanching water, especially if you plan on making asparagus soup from all the ends that get cut off after pickling. -Marisa

  • What a great idea! Too bad I didn’t see this post before I, in a rush for counter space after an awesome Mother’s Day Brunch, dumped the pot down the sink!

  • Thank you much for your not wasting nutrient rich water- how to save it and use so that plants gain and humans gain from it. Before I didn’t know what to do with this valuable nutrient filled water. Much appreciated.